fidious and just; cowardly and brave; mean and magnanimous, at the same moment? Yet instances are far from being unfrequent, in which men have been perfidious on one occasion; just on a second; cowardly on a third; humane on a fourth; cruel on a fifth; and magnanimous on a sixth. Whom shall we adduce ? Augustus, Constantine, Rienzi, and Napoleon. CLI. WHO ARE DIFFERENT IN DIFFERENT PLACES. THESE persons remind me of an animal (the name of which I do not choose to particularize, since it is found in every river, rivulet, ditch, and pond, throughout Europe, the northern parts of Asia, and, perhaps, America), which at first resembles a fish, then a lizard; and losing its tail, and acquiring lungs instead of gills, becomes a species of quadruped. So different is it at different seasons of existence ! Plants, too, this order of men frequently remind us of. A traveller visits the hot-houses of England and France; and beholds a small dwarf shrub scarcely worthy, as it were, his attention. He extends his excursion to Brazil, Mexico, and Peru; and there, to his astonishment, he recognizes the same despised species of shrub in a large, stately, and magnificent tree. CLII. DIFFERENCE OF MEN IN THEIR SPHERES, AND OUT OF THEM. I HAVE often amused myself,' says Dr. Warton*, ' by thinking what sort of magistrates Dante and Mon* On Pope's 1st Epist. taigne made, when the former was mayor of Florence, ' and the latter of Bourdeaux. Did their manners change ⚫ with their stations?' Assuredly, there must always be a change in such conditions; because not only policy, but a due regard to business, demands as much. A shoemaker looks at the shoes of the person with whom he is conversing; a tailor at the coat, waistcoat, and small-clothes; a furrier at the muff and tippet; the dress-maker at the flounce, furbelow, and pelisse. Go into a shop to purchase or discharge a bill; the master or the mistress of it seems ready to kiss your feet. But let it be to sell any thing; to request payment; or only let the master or the mistress fancy we are to gain any thing by them,-the unholy, the disreputable difference! See a merchant in his counting-house,-how respectable! take him from his sphere, and what is he? See a magistrate in the country, in his grounds, village, and even county town; and he really seems to be a person of no small air and consequence. Meet him in the capital, and he becomes as insignificant as the person who observes him. See a colonel and a post-captain-what a difference! yet what a resemblance! Behold a country apothecary and a country attorney; what silent disdain has the first for the second!—what supercilious contempt has the second for the first! Behold a doctor of divinity as a magistrate at the county sessions; and then accompany him to his rectory; where he dozes, after a hearty dinner of beef, pudding, and partridge. Does he appear the same person? The early riser regards the late riser with no small share of disdain. With the same feeling the travelling tinker regards the stationary mender of shoes. The soldier smiles at the sailor; the sailor abuses the soldier, and calls him a ' live lobster.' See a baronet in a hunting field; at a turnpike meeting; on the road with one or two grooms riding behind him; shooting on his own manor, or coursing on that of a friend. See the same person in the presence of another, who can carry fifty freeholders to a county election; or in the drawing-room of a neighbouring peer of the realm: what an immediately converted creature does he appear! He bends;—nay, he almost stoops. See a nobleman riding in his coach; walking in his shrubberies; lounging on his couch in his library, or sitting, in dignified ease, of an evening, in his drawing-room what an imposing aspect does he assume! Behold the same honourable, right honourable, or right reverend personages, in the cabinet of a minister, or at a levee or drawing-room at St. James's. Is it possible to recognize them ?-perfectly so. One has an apron, another a blue riband, a third a red riband, a fourth a garter, and a fifth a star; but all—or most— equally obsequious to the deity of the place! CLIII. WHO ACT AGAINST THEIR OWN DISPOSITIONS. CIRCUMSTANCES often make men act, for the greater part of their lives, against their natural characters; some better, others worse, than their inclinations prompt. How melancholy, for instance, is it to see persons, with capacities worthy of statesmen, wasting their intellectual energies in penning mortgages, in dispensing medicines, or in waving a sword at another man's caprice! One thing strikes me strongly; viz., that a good man will not assist a good one so cheerfully, or so effectually, as one bad man will help another of his own stamp. This, however, may not be said in reproach; though it may be regretted that goodness should have so unlimited a prudence. The bad help their fellows upon the principle, that one good turn deserves another; and they feel conscious, that they know not how soon they may have to call on their associates for generosity, or upon their friends for gratitude. Let the reason, however, be what it may, it cannot be denied, that a thief will run into every species of danger to extricate a thief; while good men sit still amid the misfortunes of their friends and-sympathize. Thus bad men act well, and good ones act ill, against their natural dispositions. CLIV. WHO ACT CONTRARY TO THEIR REAL CHARACTERS. SOME act in a manner so opposite to their characters, that it is almost passing belief. James I., for instance, performed an action more in harmony with the chivalrous character of Henry IV. of France than his own. Impossible! yet so;-for the fleet, in which Anne of Denmark embarked for Scotland, having been dispersed by a violent tempest, and the princess having been compelled to put into a small port in Norway, James, upon learning the news, fitted out a small fleet unknown to his council, and, attended by his chancellor, several nobles, and three hundred other persons, went in search of his bride. After some danger, he arrived in a harbour near Upslo, where the bride then was; and in a few days the marriage was solemnized. The zebra is the wildest and one of the most intractable of animals. Who, then, would suppose that it lives in its native recesses in herds? In captivity, it never assumes a character; not even after the culture of many years. CLV. ON HUMAN INCONSISTENCIES. A hoary head, with sense combined, The badge of ignominious years.'-—Philo. B. IN Rubens's picture of 'Meleager and Atalanta,' the figures have weapons in their left hands. 'What an 'error!' exclaims the connoisseur. Stop,' says the artist; the design is for tapestry.' It is said of Salvator Rosa*, that every thing in his pictures was of a piece: his rocks, trees, mountains, and skies, having the same wild character that animated his figures. Well had it been for Lord Strafford had he exhibited the same consistency. For, had he adhered to the advice he gave to Charles I.; viz.† to let his * Duppa, 169. Rushworth, 1355. |